Those of us who simply enjoy music, with no connection at all to the industry that records, performs, broadcasts, promotes, or distributes it, probably give little thought to exactly how all of that happens. And that’s how it’s meant to be, though people who do work in any of those segments, or all of them, study it like it’s their job. Which it is.
So we expect that most readers don’t think much about how your favorite bluegrass radio station or online platform gets the music they play, or how labels make sure that these broadcasters have accurate information about their artists and releases.
The very earliest days or broadcast radio often featured primarily live performances in their studios, with powerful networks developing to deliver such programming to affiliate stations using long distance lines leased from the phone company, to get content to stations all over the country. As recorded music on disc became popular, shows, jingles, music, and speeches could be distributed on disc, though the earliest acetate or lacquer discs were highly fragile, and would break into pieces quite easily.
Once vinyl became the medium for recordings, it became easier to get albums or singles out to radio stations by mail, though larger labels did have representatives who called on stations of every size to promote their artists and releases. Magnetic tape again changed some of these processes, and radio stations would have commonly used commercials and jingles loaded into a “cart” to easily stick into a player as needed.
In fact the popular term, “DJ,” which is short for disc jockey, was once an accurate descriptor of a radio host, who would typically have multiple turntables before them on air, swapping discs from one to the other to keep the flow of music going. The same became true as audio CDs took over from vinyl, with hosts swapping CDs in players to the same effect.
Of course now, with wholly digital music, hours and even days of programming can be pre-formatted to run in the absence of any human interaction, though it makes for a very dry and personality-free broadcast. But digital music can be easily and quickly transmitted from an artist or label’s computer to a radio station or host, who draws on a store of digital titles which only require a click to play.
I say all that to ask this question: how do the labels get the music out to the stations?
At one time they would have been mailed or hand delivered, but that was a lot of work for the labels, and fairly costly if a single alone was to be distributed. In the CD age, compilation discs became popular, with entrepreneurs convincing labels to pay a fee to have their singles included on a special CD with other artists’ music, which would then be manufactured and shipped to stations. With 20 or more labels/artists sharing the costs of manufacture, printing, and mailing, there was a real savings to be had.
But this is no longer feasible in the digital age. Hence, the emergence of the radio distribution service, a company that pays the costs of storing digital files, and making them available to people who can be verified as in the radio or publicity business, along with information on the artists, songwriters, musicians, producers, and engineers involved in the recording.
Once such a system is built, which is not inexpensive, radio hosts can use a computer interface to find, download, or research any music that is available through the service. Downloading a single or album directly to the computer to be used in the studio saves radio personnel a great deal of time, with no more schlepping of vinyl albums or CDs into the studio, or searching through them on a commercial break to find one song you want to play.
Enter Get It Played, the newest radio distribution service in the bluegrass and independent music space. Like similar services, they charge artists or labels a nominal fee to make their audio files available to radio programmers, using the concept of volume business to cover their own storage and development costs, make back their initial investments, and hopefully turn a profit.
Built and managed by Keith Barnacastle of Turnberry Records, Get It Played quickly caught the attention of bluegrass artists and labels, though the company is genre agnostic, and happy to work with any kind of music. Even at a fairly early stage, they already have more than 3,000 radio stations signed up as members, along with media outlets, blogs, and playlist curators in better than 20 countries.
Though Barnacastle owns both, Get It Played is a completely separate entity from Turnberry.
At this point Keith says that they have facilitated more than a million and a half downloads, serving over 5,000 artist and label members.
“Get It Played was created to solve a simple industry pain point: getting high-quality music in front of the right people without endless emails or complicated systems. We empower artists with the tools and targeted distribution they need to make real connections, not just uploads.”
There are no fees for radio or other clients to use the service. A free membership does have to be approved by staff to ensure that you are truly involved in the industry, but after that, members are entitled to download any and all of the music on the service. Get It Played has a very simple interface, and individual songs and albums display with all credits, who plays on each track, who wrote, arranged, produced, or any other information the label or artist chooses. Full liner notes can also be found for album links, along with cover art.
Programmers can download higher fidelity .wav audio files quickly as soon as they log in and find a track or album they need. Detailed search criteria make it a simple thing to find what you are looking for on the site.
Fees charged to artists or labels are quite low. A single track upload into the service is only $3.99, after a $20 annual membership, while a full album (up to 16 tracks) is billed at $25. Other valuable services are also available, like email campaigns to the many radio and publicity clients, ranging from as little as $69 to promote a single track, to $250 for a full album.
Given the cost of manufacturing and mailing CDs, and following up with stations and hosts to make sure they received them, using a service like Get It Played saves not only a great deal of money, but hours of valuable time as well. They also are able to access backend analytics, to see who has downloaded specific tracks.
Get It Played invites everyone who works in this part of the radio or recorded music industry to visit them online, and give them a spin.
